Apr 09, 2008 - 04:08 AM

By Kristen Calis

AJAX -- Joe Dickson doesn’t want to see one mental health bed moved from the Ajax-Pickering hospital.

The Ajax-Pickering MPP is currently collecting signatures and will present a petition to the Ontario legislature asking that the mental health beds remain where they are.

“This is our hospital,” he said. “We’ve worked on it and supported it for 53 years. I can’t see a significant amount of savings from moving the mental health beds from one hospital to the other.”

Residents picketed the offices of Mr. Dickson and Pickering-Scarborough East MPP Wayne Arthurs Tuesday morning to raise awareness of the job cuts at the Rouge Valley Health System and moving mental health beds to Centenary hospital in Scarborough. He said the provincial government has “bent over backwards” to ensure the hospital receives funding for its expansion, and the government sees the needs in the community. He added the sooner RVHS is in a better financial position, the more funding it will receive.

And, on Monday night, it was standing-room only at a meeting hosted by the Friends of the Ajax Pickering hospital, conducted by co-chairman Bill Parish and co-chairwoman Yvonne Bosch. The former said it’s crucial the public voices its concerns. 

“I think unless you come out in droves, the fix is in,” he said.

Residents and patients shared their fears about moving the mental health in-patient unit to Scarborough and talked about an upcoming public meeting hosted this Thursday by the Central East Local Health Integration Network.

“It is urgent that the public be there and express their opposition to this attack on the community’s most vulnerable citizens,” Mr. Parish said.

RVHS made some changes following a peer-review report criticizing its financial mismanagement, being $78 million in long-term debt and capital deficiencies. Aside from cutting up to 220 positions (including 72 nursing positions), it also plans to consolidate the mental health unit.

The CELHIN approved the hospital’s plan, but asked that public consultation take place before implementation of the changes. The CELHIN and the hospital have until May 4 to conduct the meetings.

Ajax resident Chris Andersen thinks moving the beds will only cause problems. He moved to Ajax in 1985 because of the community hospital, and the population was only 16,000 at the time. He’s visited RVAP on a number of occasions, including being treated for depression. He doesn’t see how moving the inpatient unit, now that Ajax’s population is around 90,000 to 100,000, makes any sense.

“We have to fight this with everything we’ve got,” he said.

He said if someone is suicidal now, they know they have a hospital nearby where they can be treated, but if the beds go to Scarborough, they’ll have to go to Centenary, he said.

“In that time what might have been a minor crisis may have become a major crisis,” Mr. Andersen said.

Another patient, Wendy Lawson, said she’s happy with the care she receives at RVAP, especially when a certain RN plays piano for the patients, and another takes them out on walks for ice cream. She added she doesn’t think the public is aware of what mental health is all about. She noted people as famous as Brooke Shields and Margaret Trudeau have suffered from postpartum depression. She said mental health issues can become dangerous, and “it’s these great doctors that help us stay out of danger.”

Although the doctors would remain at RVAP for outpatient services, the four psychiatrists have threatened to quit should the consolidation go ahead.

The meeting hosted by the CELHIN and RVHS is Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the HMS Ajax Room of the Ajax Community Centre (75 Centennial Rd.)